If you’re interested in learning some awesome newborn baby sleep tips, then you are in the right place. When your baby sleeps better, you will notice a more patient, more tolerant, more engaging baby after a good nights rest or quality nap. Be encouraged. It’s never too late to foster excellent sleep habits in a baby, and ultimately help yourself get some much needed rest as well.

1. Swaddle

From birth to about age four to five months, babies innately possess a startle reflex, in which they feel as if they are falling. The sensation of falling causes jerking movements, and the baby will incidentally wake up. Keeping a tight swaddle prevents babies from startling themselves awake, helping the newborn baby sleep both better and longer. I like to think of the baby as ‘snug as a bug in a rug,’ and I used to tell my son this every time I’d swaddle him snugly.

2. Dreamfeed.

The dreamfeed is the feeding given to the baby right before you go to bed, and it helps prevent the baby from waking up just after we moms finally drift off to sleep. Isn’t this the pinnacle of sleep deprivation? You just fall asleep and the baby wakes up. The dreamfeed can really help your newborn baby sleep for longer while you sleep. We used it until about age 4 months.

How to Dreamfeed. Assuming your baby goes to bed between 6-8 pm, the dreamfeed should be given somewhere between 10-11 pm. Any later and you will disturb night sleep. Any earlier and the baby won’t really be hungry enough. Using only a night light pick the baby up in the dark, feed the baby, and then lay him back down. No need to wake the baby or even un-swaddle. If you feel like a diaper change is needed, go ahead and change the diaper before the feeding. This ensures you can lay the baby straight back down in the crib after the feeding.

3. Limit naps during the day.

I know it’s hard to wake a sleeping baby, but sleeping too long of a stretch during the day can rob nighttime sleep. If the baby sleeps past the two hour mark, I would go ahead and wake the baby up, feed him, keep him a wake for a bit, and then lay him down for another nap. If you feel the baby truly needs longer naps, feel free to increase the nap limit to 2.5 hours. Breaking up sleep during the day will help your newborn baby sleep better at night.

4. Use white noise.

No one wants to miss a party, so if your baby is listening to all the fun going on in the house it can be hard to fall asleep and stay asleep. I place a fan on medium in the baby’s room rather than directly next to the baby, so it does not blow directly on him or sit too close to his sensitive ears. Using white noise also helps immensely when we are traveling! We are usually able to avoid asking friends or family to be quiet.

5. Follow the eat, wake, sleep cycle.

The baby wakes from sleep and immediately eats. Then the baby is awake for a while to play. Then the baby goes back to sleep….

This cycle has several purposes. First, it encourages full feedings by allowing the baby to eat immediately after waking. The baby will have the most energy immediately after waking, making him more inclined to take a full feeding and go longer between feedings. Also, by feeding the baby after sleep rather than before sleep, the cycle prevents the baby from associating food with sleep or using food as a sleep prop. When using this cycle, a feeding before bedtime is typically only feeding before sleep.

Note: Newborns require frequent feedings and rest to ensure healthy growth a development in the early months. Always feed your baby as frequently as your baby needs to ensure healthy weight gain.

6. Use a pre-nap and bedtime routines.

It is well known that babies thrive on routine, structure, and predictability. Creating consistent routines for your baby will help bring order to a very chaotic world. Choose a pre-nap routine that works for you. A pre-nap routine may include taking the baby to his room, close the blinds or curtains, place the baby in his sleep sack or wearable blanket, turn on the white noise, sing a quick song (e.g. Twinkle, twinkle), give a few cuddles, and say your sleepy words “I love you. I hope you have a good sleep.”

A bedtime routine would typically be a little longer and may include a bath, a massage, reading a story, offering a feeding, placing the baby in a wearable blanket or swaddle, turning on the white noise, a few cuddles, and saying your sleepy words. Following the same exact routine as consistently as possible cues the baby for sleep, and over time the baby will learn that sleep immediately follows the nap and bedtime routines.

7. Change your baby’s diaper strategically…

Changing the diaper before a middle of the night feeding prevents the baby from waking up too much after a feeding is finished. When the baby wakes up change the diaper and re-swaddle to prepare him for sleep immediately following a night feeding. If you change the diaper after the night feeding, the baby may become too awake, making it more challenging for him to fall asleep.

8. Understand how a baby sleeps.

The more your baby sleeps, the more they will sleep. Keeping a baby awake in hopes of tiring him out will actually result in over-stimulation, and he will experience both difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep. It is very likely an over-tired baby will sleep shorter, not longer.

9. Don’t rush in…

We may inadvertently encourage the start of a bad sleep habit by rushing in when a baby cries or rustles during the night. Often times, babies wake up babble and go back to sleep. The baby may even cry briefly or babble and still be asleep. Give the baby some time and see if he will resettle himself. Avoid rushing in and disturbing this process in order to help your newborn baby sleep better.

10. Lay the baby down awake, but drowsy.

The most important way to encourage your baby to sleep well in the long run is to teach him to fall asleep independently, which is essentially the beginnings of teaching independent sleep.

Babies, like adults, will naturally wake up during the night. Without knowing how to get back to sleep, a baby will cry out after waking regardless of actual need, resulting in night waking droning on for much longer than is actually necessary. Once a baby gets older, falling asleep independently enables a baby to drift back to sleep after waking in the night, ultimately helping your baby sleep better in the long run.

But once you learn the art of selective hearing, your life will get so much easier.

Trust me on this one.

2. SLEEP

Everyone will tell you to ‘sleep when the baby sleeps’, and it will become the most annoying phrase you’ve ever heard in your entire life. But if there’s one thing I could change about those first few months of motherhood, it’s the amount of time I spent being a martyr and doing everything EXCEPT laying down for a much-needed nap on the rare occasion my daughter let me put her in her crib.

The bottom line is that the vacuuming and the dishes and the toilets can wait.

Your well-being cannot.

3. BREASTFEEDING IS HARD WORK

And not everyone can do it.

But guess what?

There’s nothing wrong with giving your child formula (allergies permitting), so if you aren’t producing enough milk, can’t handle the pain, or simply don’t feel comfortable with it, the world will not end if you opt to bottle-feed.

And if someone has a problem with your decision, refer to # 1.

4. ACCEPT ANY HELP YOU CAN GET

You know the whole, ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ saying?

Well, it’s true.

So I strongly recommend you do the exact opposite of what I did during the first few months of parenthood.Invite people into your home, let them hold your baby while you shower, ask them to pick up groceries for you when you can’t get out of the house, and remember that they wouldn’t be offering you help if they didn’t genuinely want to give it to you.

5. ENJOY SOME BABY-FREE TIME

My daughter was almost one before I felt comfortable enough to leave her alone with my husband, and she was almost 2 before we dared to leave her with a babysitter. And while both of those events were scary, the freedom they gave me did wonders for my well-being, and I regret that I didn’t allow myself a little adult time sooner.

I now make it a point to get out at least once a week by myself, even if it’s just to buy myself a pack of tampons, and I lock down our babysitter for one Saturday a month so my husband and I can enjoy some couple time.It makes SUCH a difference.

6. GET OUT OF THE HOUSE

For some stupid reason, my husband and I were too scared to take my daughter out of the house when she was born, so I didn’t leave the house FOR THREE AND A HALF WEEKS. Do you have ANY idea what that does to a woman with postpartum hormones coursing through her veins?

It wasn’t pretty.

So, unless there’s a medical reason you have to stay indoors, I highly recommend getting outside at least once a day. And if you can swing it, sign up for a mommy-and-me class, too.

The change of scenery and interaction with other moms will do wonders for you.

Trust me.

7. HIT THE GYM

I know, I know.

When you’re up 4 times a night dealing with a colicky child, the LAST thing you want to do is spend more than a nanosecond on the treadmill, but I can tell you from experience that the movement will do wonders not only for your energy, but for your self-esteem.

Just make sure your doctor is on board before you start exercising again.

8. DON’T IGNORE POSTPARTUM DEPRESSION

One of the things that scares me the most about having another baby is the idea of developing another case of the baby blues, and that I won’t be able to lift myself out of it.

It took me a long time to get back to my old self after my daughter was born, and while I never felt like I had true PPD, I’m the first to admit I could have benefited from a little bit of help from my doctor during the first year of motherhood.

So if you feel like the initial hormone-induced baby blues aren’t going away, do yourself (and your husband!) a favor and mention it to your doctor, K?

9. LISTEN TO YOUR GUT

Whenever I feel unsure about something and call my husband in a panic, he says, ‘what does your mommy instinct tell you?’ Admittedly, this irritates me.

Why do all of the decisions fall on my shoulders?

But experience continues to prove to me that your gut is very rarely wrong, especially when it comes to your child.

Friday, March 13, 2015

So, you’re getting ready for your little bubz and one of the definite
decisions you will have to make before his arrival is whether you are
going to use cloth diapers or disposables.
All most all of us have thought of this issue at some point, whether it’s with our firstborn our with our later kids.
We’ve made a list of Pros & Cons of Cloth & Disposable Diapers just to make it a bit more easier for you to decide!
I remember shopping for Junior’s arrival (such sweet times!! One of
the first things I knew I was going to do was cloth diapers. I’ve been
in cloth diapers and the fact that it’s natural and skin friendly was a
plus factor for me. So we got 24 lovely cloth diapers and gave them to
my mum. Our theme for Junior was “A Star is Born” and my mum
spent many a nights toggling her work to stitch stars on those 24
diapers. Two weeks into cloth diapers, I had shifted to disposables – 8
years later, still hear her complaints! :p
Our list of Pros & Cons of Cloth & Disposable Diapers aims to
give you a rough idea on how practical and good each of these diapers
are so that you can choose for yourself which would be best suited for
you.
You’ll have lots of people giving you their opinion, nevertheless,
stick to what you feel comfortable with and don’t worry, you can change
if you feel like you need to after bubz is born.
So here goes! Pros & Cons of Cloth & Disposable Diapers!CLOTH DIAPERSCloth diapers
have pretty much evolved from the time it was used on our generation!
You now have the traditional terry cloth napkins, prefolded napkins,
contour diapers and fitted diapers! (In case you know of more, please do
comment below!)
So let’s start with a quick glance at the diapers.
The traditional cloth diapers are the rectangular terry cloth that need folding to be used. Prefolded napkins, much like the traditional cloth diapers need folding but has a thick, padded center section. Contour diapers are shaped like an hourglass and usually require fastening though new ones do come with snaps or velcro. Fitteddiapers are shaped like contour and have elastic around the legs and waist, and fasten with built-in snaps or velcro.
PROS OF CLOTH DIAPERS:

Economical - This is by far the obvious, they will
cost far less than the disposables that you will need to keep buy. The
cloth ones that you are buy are for you to keep using wash after wash.
And let’s not forget, if you plan on having a number 2 at some point,
they can be used again!

Natural – cotton being natural is very safe on kids and the cloth is breathable meaning its easy on your baby’s skin.

You’ll never run out – since hygiene is of
uttermost importance when it comes to newborns and toddlers, you are
most likely to do you baby’s laundry on time (yes laundry.. sigh!).
Provided that you are able to get them dried on time, you will never run
out of them

Potty training is much more easy. Little ones feel less comfortable and undeniably feel the wetness and ‘messiness’ and most often it’s easier to potty train cloth diapered babies.

CONS OF CLOTH DIAPERS

It’s not that convenient – they have to laundered,
ironed and folded. Quite a process especially during the first few weeks
when baby is around. It is also advised to by a special detergent which is hypoallergenic and gentle enough for your newborn.

Messy – once again it’s a bit of a process. You need such accessories as change mats or cot sheets,
to make sure that you don’t get mattresses and such wet and leaks can
also mean baby’s clothes need to be changed as well. You can use plastic outter pants to help prevent leaks but such leaks are inevitable.

Don’t forget, the nappies have to be washed, this means you have to dispose the poop too before you can wash them thoroughly.

Not suitable for travel – and it’s my personal
opinion that it’s best not to use cloth diapers during the night to
ensure a good night’s sleep for you and your little one.

DISPOSABLE DIAPERS
So there’s quite a lot of disposable brands that available in Sri Lanka, local and international brands.
Here are PROs and CONs of the disposable diapers:
PROS OF DISPOSABLE DIAPERS:

Very convenient – From grabbing on from the packet to putting it on. There’s no parallel process either – of washing, drying, laundering and folding.

Easy to travel – disposables are an easier choice when travelling.

Less leakages – so much less messier and likelihood of leakages are comparatively much less.

Helpful for long night rest – The baby is more comfortable and dry which means the baby is disturbed less.

CONS OF DISPOSABLE DIAPERS:

Nappy Rash – though some people may claim that
there is a tendency for babies who are on disposable diapers, this is
not necessarily true. Using disposable diapers that are of quality and
have breathable material helps as does giving your baby some ‘diaper-free’ time. Using a cream such as Sudocream as a barrier can also help prevent and treat nappy rashes.

Harder to potty train – since babies and toddlers
are comfortable and dry in their disposable diapers which are super
absorbent there might be a tendency of difficulty in potty training
disposable diapered babies.

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